The LGA's media office provides the national voice of local government in England and Wales on the major issues of the day for national, regional and local press.
The LGA has joined forces with the Electoral Commission and the Jo Cox Foundation to call for no abuse towards candidates at this set of local elections.
We are pleased that locally elected representatives will have dedicated police support for security matters for the first time. This is something we have long called for.
"Councils work incredibly hard to support asylum and resettlement and have helped communities welcome around 200,000 Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war two years ago."
According to Home Office data, there were around 90,000 decisions on older cases forecasted to be made before the end of December 2023. The pace and scale of the Home Office’s decision-making means that large numbers of people are already and will continue to turn to councils for support.
“It is positive to see that places which had been overlooked in previous rounds have been included on the strength of their previous bids and that culture is given the extra recognition it deserves in strengthening pride-in-place."
Responding to the immigration minister Robert Jenrick’s announcement that fifty hotels will be closed to asylum seekers by January, Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair of the Local Government Association said:
“Councils have a proud history of supporting humanitarian efforts and continue to work hard to protect and support refugees and help deliver a wide range of government asylum and resettlement schemes. Councils share the government’s ambitions to end hotel use for asylum seekers.
“Hotel closures have a direct impact on councils and local government wants to play an active role in working with
We have raised concerns about councils being asked to commit to numbers of arrivals or propose a cap. It might be difficult for councils to predict potential arrival numbers across both asylum and resettlement and therefore their capacity to support new arrivals and the additional housing needed.
The number of local councillors who have reported feeling at risk in their role due to rising levels of abuse and intimidation has increased to a new high in the last year.